Issues You Should Care About
The Hosting Industry in the United States, and the security of private data in general, is under threat. Legislation that is making its way through Congress represents a sea change in the way our government has regulated data in our country. Here are five examples:
- The Protect IP Act
- Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act
- Personal Data Privacy & Security Act of 2011
- Data Accountability & Trust Act
- Data Security & Breach Notification Act of 2011
The Protect IP Act:
This bill serves as the #1 greatest risk to the Hosting Industry in the United States today, and if passed unaltered it could prove catastrophic to not just the Hosting Industry and the jobs it represents, but to Internet freedom in general. If passed, it will immediately begin to slow the Internet economy in the United States, as we see innovators and business leaders leave our shores.
The Hosting Industry is sympathetic to the plight of Copyright and Trademark holders on the Internet. But the Protect IP Act, designed to create a system to disable websites that are determined to be “dedicated to infringing activities,” attempts to solve real problems with oversimplified ‘solutions’ that subvert due process.
Among other disruptive provisions, the bill as it is currently written has no “Safe Harbor” for hosts and treats them as if they are acting in concert with customers who are violating others’ rights.
Download our Position Paper on PIPA Here.
Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act:
This bill, named specifically so that it is hard to stand against, requires hosts to “securely” maintain network access logs for 18 months, putting the security and cost liabilities of such requirement squarely on the shoulders of the hosters.
Personal Data Privacy & Security Act of 2011
Data Accountability & Trust Act
Data Security & Breach Notification Act of 2011:
All 3 have slightly different component parts, but central to all 3 is an attempt to make it so that security breaches need to be reported. Each bill establishes the FTC as having jurisdiction over either personal data or specific security issues.